Conventionally, as listed below, a device and a method for applying a functional fluid material disclosed in Patent Document 1: JP2004-154733A, or a connector for fluid, an application device, etc. which are disclosed in Patent Document 2: JP2007-275769A, are used for applications in which fluid, such as sealing agent or adhesive, is applied at an automobile assembly plant etc. The application device according to Patent Document 1 is comprised of an application unit and a refilling unit. In this application device, the application unit has a discharge gun which discharges the functional fluid material, and a feeder which supplies the functional fluid material to the discharge gun. The refilling unit refills the functional fluid material from a refilling port to a refilling tube part. By adopting such a structure, a long-distance piping for supplying the functional fluid material to the discharge gun is no longer necessary, and a significant shortening of piping length is achieved, and a temperature adjusting device for temperature control of the fluid material and a fluid-feeding pump are made necessary minimum.
Purposes of the fluid connector and the application device which are disclosed in Patent Document 2 are also to eliminate a large-scale piping installation for supplying the fluid from a tank to a discharger, and a high-pressure pump for carrying the fluid, similar to Patent Document 1. The conventional art of Patent Document 2 is provided with first to third feeding parts for supplying the fluid, such as sealing agent, and first to third dischargers, which are detachably attached to the respective first to third feeding parts etc. via fluid connectors. The first to third dischargers have tanks for storing the fluid supplied from the feeding parts to which the first to third dischargers are attached, respectively, and are dischargeable of the fluid from the tanks. The first to third dischargers are attachable and detachable to/from an arm of a robot via a second connector, respectively.
As described above, various discharge systems are provided in which the discharging device for discharging the discharge fluid and the refilling device for refilling the discharging device with the fluid are provided so as to be connectable and disconnectable, and the fluid is refillable from the refilling device side to the discharging device side by connecting both the devices.
Here, in the discharge system as described above, in order to prevent problems, such as leaks of the fluid during the refilling operation, and wear of a coupler on the refilling device side (hereinafter, also referred to as “the refill-side coupler”) and a coupler on the discharging device side (hereinafter, also referred to as “the discharge-side coupler”) associated with mutual sliding of the couplers, it is desirable to configure the refill-side coupler and the discharge-side coupler so that they are connected to each other without causing an offset of the axial centers thereof (axial offset). Thus, it is desirable to move the coupler provided to the discharging device side so as to be substantially aligned with the coupler provided to the refilling device side, and then connect the couplers. However, in the conventional arts, there is no measures against the axial offset and, thus, there is a problem that a poor connection may be caused between the discharging device and the refilling device.
Thus, one purpose of the present invention is to provide a discharge system that adopts an optimal structure for connecting a discharging device to a refilling device in a substantially aligned fashion.